In 2040, Shu Yan was twelve years old. That year, she was graduating from primary school and preparing to enter junior high, so her father decided to grant her one wish.

For some unknown reason, Shu Yan had developed an interest in Chinese cultural relics. Recently, she heard about an upcoming antique auction and decided to ask her father to take her there and help her bid on one of the artifacts.

Shu Yan’s father was the owner of the most renowned private high-tech company in China, a man worth billions. Naturally, he had to fulfill his daughter’s request, a way to compensate for his absence due to frequent business travel and the void left by the early passing of her mother.

Thus, twelve-year-old Shu Yan happily attended the antique auction with her father. The auction was of a high caliber, but unfortunately, nothing presented for auction caught Shu Yan's eye until an iron, sealed box was brought out.

“Ladies and gentlemen, the preceding auction has been exciting, and I trust you all still feel a surge of anticipation. Therefore, we have prepared a piece to help you relax,” the auctioneer announced from the podium.

An etiquette hostess then carried an item onto the stage and placed it on the display table.

“This lot is this iron box, excavated by us from a valley in Shuzhou Province. Based on our scans, we estimate the iron box dates back to around 2008. As you all know, the devastating earthquake that shocked the world occurred in 2008, and this box was likely buried at that time. The sealing mechanism of this box is remarkably well-executed; we can guarantee the contents are perfectly preserved. Of course, we have not opened it, and we have no idea what is inside. So, what secrets does this iron box hold? Is it gold? Is it stone? I honestly don’t know. If any of you are intrigued, you can bid for this box—perhaps you might uncover something interesting!” the host introduced with a touch of amusement.

This iron box was indeed rather comical. The attendees, focused on artifacts of deeper antiquity, showed little interest in something so recent from Chinese history, especially since no one knew its contents. Consequently, no one showed any inclination to bid.

However, the young Shu Yan, upon seeing the iron box, was suddenly gripped by an intense curiosity. Perhaps the auctioneer’s words resonated with her; she wanted to find a treasure within this box and immediately demanded that her father acquire it for her.

Shu Yan’s father, eager to indulge his daughter, met her wish. With no competition, he secured the iron box effortlessly. Thrilled with this peculiar gift, Shu Yan displayed immediate, strong curiosity. She and her father promptly left the auction and returned home with the box.

Once home, Shu Yan impatiently carried the iron box to her father’s laboratory, utilizing the equipment there to perform a detailed scan. The scans revealed contents resembling a diary and old optical discs, alongside several mobile storage devices. Although the box was old, its excellent seal had kept the contents in pristine condition.

Having identified the contents, Shu Yan grew intensely interested in the diary and the discs, desperately wanting to know what they contained. Still, considering the box’s age, she feared that opening it rashly might cause the contents to degrade. Thus, she arranged for the researchers in her father’s lab to perform a specialized treatment to prevent the items from deteriorating upon exposure.

Once this preservation was complete, the iron box was opened. Shu Yan retrieved several diaries, a few storage discs, and some older-style mobile memory sticks.

As soon as she obtained the diaries, Shu Yan eagerly began reading. She was astonished to discover that they chronicled an incredibly moving love story. Coincidentally, the female protagonist in the story shared the name Shu Yan, while the male protagonist was named Liu Hui.

Shu Yan began slowly absorbing the poignant, almost tragic love story between Shu Yan and Liu Hui. Unconsciously, she began to project herself into the narrative, feeling as though she were experiencing the romance firsthand—a truly bizarre sensation. Shu Yan quickly finished the despairing love story, even weeping uncontrollably over the heroine’s ultimate separation from the hero.

Next, Shu Yan used playback equipment to view the content stored on the old discs and mobile drives. She immediately realized they contained videos shot by the heroine, Shu Yan, focusing entirely on the hero, Liu Hui. In the voiceovers, the heroine constantly expressed her deep affection for him.

After watching everything, Shu Yan was profoundly touched. She felt joy for the couple's happiness, sorrow for their pain, and heartbreak over their final parting. Without realizing it, the burgeoning young girl had fully identified with the story’s heroine, seeing herself as that Shu Yan, and began to feel a nascent affection for the man named Liu Hui.

Shu Yan’s mother had passed away when she was very young, and her father, consumed by work, rarely had time to nurture her emotional world. She frequently felt isolated and lonely. Therefore, after acquiring the diaries and discs detailing the love story of Shu Yan and Liu Hui, she reread and rewatched them obsessively. Inevitably, she memorized the entire narrative.

Because Shu Yan watched videos of Liu Hui daily, coupled with the voiceovers where the original Shu Yan professed her profound love, Shu Yan grew intimately familiar with Liu Hui, as if he were a constant presence in her life. The words in the narration naturally transformed into her own heartfelt thoughts.

Shu Yan became utterly immersed in the love story of Shu Yan and Liu Hui, unable to extricate herself. This continued for five years. By then, Shu Yan was a beautiful seventeen-year-old, yet she refused to interact with any boys. After school, she would go straight home to immerse herself in the romance of Liu Hui and Shu Yan. Every time she reached the part about their final separation, tears would stream down her face, mourning their fate and cursing destiny for interfering with true love’s union.

As this emotional state intensified, Shu Yan finally merged completely with the narrative. She felt she was the Shu Yan from the story, or at the very least, her reincarnation. She believed her ability to find the iron box containing this moving tale was due to a magical resonance between her and the artifact.

Shu Yan sank deeper into the romance, unconsciously beginning to change. In her daily life, she began assuming the persona of the story’s Shu Yan, until ultimately, she could no longer distinguish between who she truly was and who she was pretending to be.

Shu Yan’s father noticed her increasing peculiarities but dismissed them as the typical confusion of adolescence. Coupled with his demanding work schedule, he paid little mind to these changes.

Gradually, Shu Yan’s focus shifted to the Liu Hui of that era. She attempted to gather information about him online, but since the Liu Hui of that time was obscure, achieving no great historical feats, he left virtually no trace in the records, which greatly disappointed her. Nevertheless, she persisted, continuing her efforts to collect data through various online methods.

Persistence paid off. After a year of diligent searching, Shu Yan finally uncovered a faint trace of Liu Hui’s existence. She found a mention of him in a report about a legendary wedding in Bashi City. The report detailed how Liang Bo, the owner of Juweixuan in Bashan, married off his only daughter, and the groom was Liu Hui. His bride was Liang Jingyue, Liang Bo’s only daughter.

The love between Liu Hui and Liang Jingyue was described as so pure, unencumbered by issues of family status or wealth, that it inspired widespread admiration. In an era where true love was increasingly rare, this was uplifting news, which is why their wedding made the papers.

Seeing that Liu Hui had ultimately married this stranger, Liang Jingyue, caused an unsettling feeling in Shu Yan, as if she were the real Shu Yan and Liu Hui had betrayed her. She continued her research and discovered that Liu Hui and Liang Jingyue later had a daughter, and they lived happily as a family. However, after Liang Bo’s Juweixuan went bankrupt for unspecified reasons, there were no more press reports mentioning Liu Hui’s family.

Upon gathering details of Liu Hui’s later life, Shu Yan became consumed by jealousy. From the diaries and videos, she knew Liu Hui to be an extremely devoted man, so why had he married another woman? Especially after his supposed final separation from Shu Yan? Had he forgotten her so easily?

This thought sparked a radical notion in her mind: she had to return to the past—specifically, to the time just after Shu Yan and Liu Hui’s tragic parting. She would take the place of the deceased Shu Yan, unite with Liu Hui, and live happily with him forever.

Once the idea of traveling back in time took root, it became an uncontrollable obsession, plunging Shu Yan into anxiety. Even in 2046, with humanity's advanced technology, a time machine capable of transporting her back to 2008 had not been created.

The burning desire to return clashed violently with the impossibility of doing so, leaving Shu Yan tormented for months. It was during this time that Shu Yan overheard her father on a call, learning that his laboratory was researching the very problem of temporal displacement.

Shu Yan immediately focused on this. She began pestering her father, begging for a tour of the secret laboratory, promising absolute discretion. Her father, unable to resist her coaxing and burdened by guilt over his long absences, finally agreed to let her enter the clandestine facility. However, he repeatedly stressed the crucial need for secrecy, emphasizing that the research into time travel was extremely dangerous, and any leak could cause immense trouble.

After agreeing to her father's terms, Shu Yan entered the secret lab. Only then did she learn what her father had been studying: two years prior, he had recovered a miraculous white jade tablet from an ancient tomb. He brought it back for research, only to find himself completely baffled by its composition and material; none of their equipment could even scratch or damage it.

Shu Yan’s father immediately developed an intense interest in the white jade tablet and established a dedicated secret laboratory solely for researching its mysteries. Despite being equipped with the world’s most advanced scientific apparatus, after two years of rigorous testing, they had yielded zero results—they couldn't even determine the tablet’s basic material.

Her father even tried dripping his own blood onto the tablet, hoping for some magical master-recognition scenario straight out of fiction, but the white tablet remained completely unresponsive. Yet, this very resistance only convinced him that the tablet held a profound secret, making his research even more vital.

Three months earlier, a bizarre astronomical event occurred in the solar system: the eight major planets and the Sun aligned perfectly in a straight line. Coinciding with this strange alignment, the white jade tablet in the secret lab suddenly emitted a soft, white glow.

The researchers in the secret lab were overjoyed. They immediately began analyzing this emitted light and discovered it possessed the astonishing ability to reverse the flow of time. They quickly concluded that the tablet’s function must be to manipulate time, allowing people and objects to return to the past.

Upon reaching this incredible conclusion, the researchers became ecstatic, believing they could master the method of temporal traversal by analyzing this white light, thus enabling the construction of a machine capable of journeying through time.

However, as soon as the strange alignment of the solar system’s planets dissipated, the white light emanating from the jade tablet vanished too. No matter what methods the secret lab employed afterward, they could never induce the tablet to exhibit any anomaly again, causing their research to abruptly stall.

Once granted access to the secret lab, Shu Yan quickly learned the focus of their investigation. She was intrigued by the goal of building a time machine—if successful, she could return to 2008, meet Liu Hui, and stay there with him forever. But when she discovered the research had hit a dead end, she felt a fresh wave of disappointment.

Shu Yan’s mood swung from initial excitement to current despair. One day, while visiting the lab, she casually picked up the white jade tablet. Since she was the boss’s daughter, and the tablet was known to be indestructible, the researchers did not stop her or ask her to put it down.

As she held the tablet, an idea spontaneously formed in her mind: this piece of white jade must be a divine treasure, so powerful it could alter anyone's destiny, even sending her back to 2008.

Shu Yan found this sudden conviction strange—why did she so firmly believe this object could grant her wish? Despite grasping the tablet’s extraordinary nature, she still had no clue how to activate it to send her back in time.

Two more months passed. Shu Yan continued her daily ritual of watching the love story of Liu Hui and Shu Yan. She realized she was completely addicted, thinking of Liu Hui constantly, yearning to be with him, yet utterly incapable of traveling backward—there was no historical precedent for returning to the past. This agonizing frustration culminated one day while peeling fruit, causing her to slice her finger and draw blood.

Lost in her melancholy, Shu Yan barely noticed the wound, simply sucking the blood from her finger and neglecting to bandage it. She then returned to the secret lab, hoping to see if research had progressed. Accidentally touching the white jade tablet, the cut on her finger reopened, dripping blood onto the surface, which was immediately absorbed.

Instantly, fragments of incomplete data were transmitted directly into Shu Yan’s mind, allowing her to grasp the white jade tablet’s precise function. Although she didn't know why this knowledge appeared so suddenly, her heart soared with elation. Maintaining a blank expression, she carefully placed the tablet down and returned home without incident.

Once home, Shu Yan threw her head back and laughed wildly. This near-hysterical display terrified her father, who feared his daughter had suddenly gone mad. But Shu Yan quickly regained composure, easing his alarm.

Ignoring what others thought, Shu Yan began preparing for her temporal journey. First, she acquired a massive capacity mobile storage device. Into this, she began archiving all high-tech advancements post-2008, recording all financial data from those years, and even compiling lottery numbers and sports betting outcomes. She packed all this information onto the storage device and placed it inside the iron box acquired at the auction.

Shu Yan intended to use the white jade tablet to return to 2008, find Liu Hui, and be with him. The contents of her massive storage drive were the guarantee for their future happiness. She didn't want love coupled with poverty; such a romance, she reasoned, could never remain stable.

Even in 2046, online novels about time travel were immensely popular. Stories about returning to the past and using foreknowledge to amass wealth were ubiquitous. Shu Yan occasionally read such fiction, so she was very familiar with the methods of building a fortune. For her and Liu Hui’s perfect future, this needed to be secured.

With her time-travel preparations complete, Shu Yan cooked a special, elaborate meal for her father. She wanted to properly repay his affection, as she knew she would never return, and this departure would deeply wound him.

Her father, unaware of the true reason behind his daughter's sudden compliance and culinary efforts, assumed she had finally matured and began to understand his own feelings. He happily devoured the meal, despite the fact that Shu Yan’s cooking was frankly mediocre.

Then, taking advantage of a time when her father was out, Shu Yan brought the iron box to the secret lab. Under the pretense of a simple request, she managed to send the research staff away and entered the lab alone, picking up the white jade tablet.

Shu Yan began chanting inwardly: I want to return to 2008, I must find my Liu Hui. I want to return to 2008, I must find my Liu Hui...

As if responding to her desperate mantra, the silent white jade tablet began to emit a bright, white light. Shu Yan was overjoyed, realizing she had finally mastered the tablet’s mechanism.

Just then, her father suddenly threw open the laboratory door and rushed in. Seeing Shu Yan enveloped in the brilliant white light, he cried out in panic, “Yanyan! Don’t! Don’t leave me…”

Shu Yan suddenly caught sight of her father, startling her. Upon hearing his shout, her heart filled with immediate remorse. Her grip loosened, and the iron box held to her chest tumbled to the ground. Alarmed, she instinctively bent to retrieve it, never expecting the White Jade Tablet to suddenly activate its miraculous function, initiating a temporal leap that swept Shu Yan away. In her final glimpse backward, she saw the sorrowful tears tracing paths down her father’s face...

Shu Yan was enveloped in a surge of white light, instantly plunging into the spacetime tunnel. The bizarre, dazzling colors within the tunnel captivated her entirely, making her momentarily forget the lingering image of her father’s heartbroken gaze. Simultaneously, the anticipation of soon reuniting with Liu Hui made her intensely excited, for she was on the verge of finding her true love.

However, just as Shu Yan’s exhilaration peaked, a sudden void tore open within the seemingly continuous passage of the spacetime tunnel. Caught completely off guard, Shu Yan plummeted through the temporal rift.

In Bashan, 2025, Wei Chao arrived in a wretched state at the great embankment lining the Yangtze River. His clothes were shredded in places, and his body was covered in bruises—all inflicted by the fraudulent Daoists of the Sanqing Temple.

In that moment, a suicidal impulse surged through Wei Chao. He felt utterly hopeless, convinced he had lost all reason to live, and saw no further meaning in the mortal world.

Wei Chao stood on the Yangtze embankment, lifting one leg over the edge toward the churning river below. But just then, the image of his wife and child flashed in his mind, bringing a sudden, desperate return of hope. He had to rectify the mistakes he had made; he needed to win back his wife, earn his child’s forgiveness, and bravely continue to live. With that resolve, Wei Chao dragged his forward-reaching leg back, turning to head home.

Shu Yan never imagined the spacetime tunnel would harbor such a flaw. She fell through the opening and found herself materializing abruptly by a riverbank, where a bearded, disheveled middle-aged man appeared to be taking a leisurely stroll.

Shu Yan screamed, losing her balance entirely, and landed directly on top of the man, throwing him instantly off balance and sending them both tumbling toward the Yangtze.

Wei Chao, only moments after deciding to return home, was struck by this sudden, aerial calamity. Slammed in the back by Shu Yan’s impact, he began to fall downward. Wei Chao gasped in shock, frantically scrabbling backward, trying to grasp anything solid. In the chaos, his hand inadvertently clamped down on the White Jade Tablet Shu Yan held, wrenching it free. Shu Yan, already unsteady, was pulled along by Wei Chao’s desperate movement and plummeted toward the river as well.

From emerging out of the spacetime tunnel, striking Wei Chao, to being robbed of the White Jade Tablet and falling into the Yangtze—it all happened in a single, terrifying instant for Shu Yan. By the time she registered the extreme danger, it was too late; she could only watch helplessly as she plunged toward the water.

It was then that the residual white temporal energy clinging to her body ignited once more, opening a new spacetime conduit beneath her. Shu Yan dropped into this passage, continuing her journey through time.

Inside this new conduit, Shu Yan was consumed by tension and fear. She had lost the White Jade Tablet, possessed no way of knowing what era she would land in, or even if she would ever encounter Liu Hui again.

Although Shu Yan’s mind raced with anxious thoughts inside the tunnel, her passage was brief. She soon tumbled out of another spatial tear and crashed hard onto the ground.

When Shu Yan managed to scramble to her feet, she found a man and a woman standing nearby. The man watched her with intense vigilance.

A thrill shot through Shu Yan; the man was none other than Liu Hui, her beloved, whose image she had scrutinized countless times in videos she had recorded.

Shu Yan stared blankly at Liu Hui for a moment upon seeing him. After a short pause, a radiant smile broke across her face, and she whispered, "Ah, I know. You are Liu Hui."

Thanks to the book friend: Fei Ni Mo Shu for your support! RO